High-ranking Catholic priests push for an end to celibacy

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Eleven retired priests from Germany have called for an end to celibacy in an open letter, written in review of their 50 years as clergy. They are unusually candid in addressing the isolation many priests face.

17.01.2017
Mara Bierbach

A group of 11 retired high-ranking Catholic priests is causing a stir across Germany with their request to abolish celibacy. The men are part of a group of clerics who were anointed in 1967 in Cologne - a city considered both a Catholic stronghold and one of Germany's most progressive and gay-friendly cities.

Among the men is Franz Decker, a retired priest who for over a decade led the Catholic Relief Service in Cologne. "We believe that requiring that every man who becomes a priest to remain celibate is not acceptable. We think, every Catholic should be allowed to choose if they would rather be celibate or not, regardless of whether they want to work as priests or not - just like in the evangelical Church or the Orthodox church, really, every church but the Catholic Church," Decker told DW.

A high toll on many priests

The demand to abolish the century-old tradition is part of an open letter published at the wake of the golden anniversary of Decker and his colleagues as catholic priests. In the letter, they list a number of suggestions on how the Catholic Church could modernize itself to combat the fact that "questions of God are no longer relevant to many people in this country," including other demands seen as progressive bordering on radical by many within the church, such as lifting the ban of women as priests.

Decker and his friends argue that while celibacy might make for a good way of life for priests who live in communal monasteries, like many clergy used to, most modern priests often live by themselves and have little spiritual awakening to gain from church-imposed solitude and often suffer from the seclusion.

http://www.dw.com/en/high-ranking-catholic-priests-push-for-an-end-to-celibacy/a-37168709